THE MOST EFFICIENT INSPECTIONS ARE THE BEST PREPARED ONES

Experts of competition authorities of OECD member-states and FAS shared their dawn raid experience during an international workshop

On 4 October 2018 “Efficient anti-cartel enforcement practices” international workshop continued in St Petersburg.

Renato Ferrandi, a senior inspector of the International Competition Department, Italy’s Competition Agency (ICA) gave practical recommendations and possible search pitfalls.

He described ICA legal framework and powers for carrying out search, and offered some practical advice as to what should be done in some controversial situations and presented detailed recommendations on preparing and performing inspections.

“Those inspections are the most efficient that are the best prepared”, emphasized Renato Ferrandi.

Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Mukhamed Khamukov, outlined FAS experience in unscheduled inspections and use of information technologies during such in such measures.

He highlighted regulatory standards for inspections, the goals of dawn raids, and practical recommendations on planning and acting during inspections, that staff of the antimonopoly authority are guided by in their efforts.

Mukhamed Khamukov said the function of the antimonopoly body is getting more preventative rather than punitive. Thus, FAS sometimes announces information, in which sectors of the economy there are cartel suspicion so that companies can adjust their operations and do not commit violations of the antimonopoly law.

“For example, for several years FAS has been performing control measures in computer and software supplies for public needs. We performed inspections and opened cases. These measures were accompanied by active advocacy and increasing awareness. We think that it is more important to prevent violations rather than prosecute. Some companies heard the message and stopped the violations. Other companies did not hear our warnings and we had to hold them administratively liable”, explained the speaker.

Mukhamed Khamukov highlighted the issues emerging in the course of dawn raids such as attempts to oppose, non-admission, “delays” at the entrance check point, etc., and methods of solving them.

“FAS drafted a law on corporate penalties: turnover fines for opposing unscheduled inspections. The draft law is submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation”, added Mukhamed Khamukov.

The speaker informed that if necessary IT-specialists can be included in the inspection team and explained how digital evidence should be documented in the course of inspections.

Assistant Director of the Cartel and Criminal Group, UK Competition and Markets Authority, Kwadjo Adjepong told how the British antimonopoly agency employs expert-analytical forensics suing digital information technologies.

According to the speaker, a team of forensic experts in the field of digital information technologies is included in Enforcement Practice Directorate, CMA, and is responsible for entire work of CMA on analyzing data related to cartels, crimes and M&A.

“We collect and analyze information from computers, mobile devices, GPS – navigators, USB – drives. We analyze data that we get from e-mail, WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Dropbox, etc.”, said Kwadjo Adjepong.

The tool that we use to file archiving is called Nuix. It is our platform where we verify and analyze information.  It enables case investigators to search information  by the key words, analyze and classify material, determine the interaction schemes, register electronic messages exchange and applications between individuals, etc.”, continued the speaker. “We have our own special group of experts for using Nuix”.

The representatives of UK Competition and Markets Authority also reported that “for many groups of specialists involved in case investigation the internet can be a valuable source of information. A special laboratory not associated with the expert forensic laboratory analyses open sources of information”.